An Introduction Of Sorts

(Some) Lessons Learned and a Path Forward for Democratic Digital

Among many, many, many other things, a terrible thing about losing a presidential election is your work is lost. This isn’t even close to the most important loss of the 2016 election cycle — mass deportation, white nationalism, complete disregard of Black lives might be at the top of that list. But for the digital, data, and technology practitioners of Democratic politics, presidential campaigns have been hotbeds of digital and technology innovation, and the lessons we learn on those campaigns are critical to charting the path forward.

In 2018, Democrats will be fighting for the House and Senate, for the trust of the American people, for the soul of our party. We certainly didn’t have that all figured out at Hillary for America, or on the digital team, but we did a few things that might help us get at some of that.

We’re here tell you some here about what worked, what didn’t, and what a path forward might be. Our chief desire is that some folks who are running program in 2018 and 2010 read this and don’t repeat our mistakes. Even better would be if they were even more creative and innovative than we were. “We” is (some of) the women of the Hillary for America digital team. Hillary’s digital team was historic in it’s own right — led by women, many female team leads, staffed by young women.

This isn’t an official account, really. That will have to come from our team’s leadership: Teddy Goff, Jenna Lowenstein, and Katie Dowd. Think of this as your almost official guide — so you know we’re keeping it real.

As Hillary says, Onward!